Concern about discharging improperly configured projectile has been a concern for years. For example, a safety valve appears in a patent issued to Nin and D'Andrade, U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,837, granted in 1996, and entitled “Safety Nozzle For Multi-Shot Projectile Shooting Air Gun,” and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,050, also issued in 1996 to D'Andrade entitled “Safety Nozzle For Projectile Shooting Air Gun.” The two patents purport to describe a toy air gun safety valve for firing soft foam darts where the valve does not open unless the dart inserted into a launch tube has a predetermined shape or configuration that matches a configuration of the valve to enable the dart to push the valve to an open position.
Two more recent patents to Bligh, Mead and Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,526 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,481,209, both entitled “Toy Projectile Launcher With Slidable Outer Cylinder and Stationary Inner Compression Member,” the later patent being a divisional of the earlier patent, purport to disclose a safety valve for an air gun. Another launching device patented in 1973, U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,136, entitled “Spring Actuated Projector Having Gravity Fed Magazine,” purports to disclose a disc having a serrated edge to be impacted by a pivotal arm biased by a rubber band. The arm has a leading serrated edge to engage the disc and cause the disc to spin. The launcher uses a channel having side rails to limit the width of objects that may be inserted, a top wall to limit the height of such objects, and a bottom trough so that small objects, such as a pencil, will fall into the trough and be unable to be impacted by the pivotal arm to cause discharge.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,383 issued in 1992 to Ebert and others for a “Gun with Pivoting Barrel, Projectile Loader, and Trigger Interlock,” purports to disclose a safety feature for a BB gun where the gun includes a pivotal barrel and a two position trigger. When latched, the barrel is aligned, the trigger is moved to a firing position, and the gun may be fired. When the barrel is unlatched, the barrel pivots, the trigger is in an at-rest position, and the gun is unable to be fired.
The invention discussed below in connection with the described embodiments address these and other safety deficiencies of the prior art. The features and advantages of the present invention will be explained in or become apparent from the following summary and description of the preferred embodiments considered together with the accompanying drawings.